Green Sky at Night
by fenrir-ice-wolf
Summary: When the new neighbours moved in down the street, Lea didn't take much notice of them. But now with mysterious rumours flying around, how long will it be untill Lea realises that he's stumbled onto a secret that should have remained buried?


_So, this is probably the first fanfiction that I've written in over a year (NaNo doesn't count). So I hope you enjoy! Also, kudos to anyone who knows the film that this is based off. As usual, None of the characters depicted in this story are mine (although I wish they were)._

Imagine, if you will, a city. This city is large, sprawling and busy- not so different from every other city really. However, what sets this particular city apart from all the others is the story of an incident that took place round and about several houses in one particular street, in one particular neighbourhood.

This is that story.

One unremarkable morning in early December, Lea Van Laren woke up and realised that his alarm had failed to go off. Although it didn't seem like much at first glance, Lea would look back at this moment several times over the course of the next week, and he and Roxas would agree that he really should have rolled over and gone back to sleep. However Lea didn't know what was to come so he did not, in fact, close his eyes and bury his head under the pillow. Heaving himself out of his cocoon of blankets, he squinted at his clock in confusion. According to the piece of junk he should be at the University right now. Swearing, Lea wrapped his duvet around himself and stumbled out of his room, making his way down the hall. As he reached the stairs, he heard the TV blaring some daytime talk show and voices floating from the direction of the kitchen. Following the smell of cooking bacon he padded into the kitchen where he was greeted by the sight of his housemates leaning over the oven. From the smell of it, they were making a proper cooked breakfast and Lea stood momentarily in the doorway breathing deeply and savouring the smell of bacon.

Glancing up, one of the people at the cooker grinned and laughed.

"So, it finally moves!"

Lea made a two-fingered gesture at him, and yawned widely. "Morning to you as well sunshine. How come you aren't at the Uni right now?"

Roxas Hartmann turned to study his friend, his raised eyebrows making Lea feel like he was missing something important. "What do you mean why am I here? You really can't be so out of it that you've forgotten that it's the beginning of the holidays!" Seeing Lea's confused expression, his expression turned from incredulous to surprised. "You _did_ forget! Seriously Lea, who forgets the beginning of the holidays?"

Sliding into one of the seats at the table, Lea frowned and pulled the duvet tighter around himself. "Me apparently. I was wondering why my alarm didn't go off." He glanced out of the corner of his eyes, in time to see Roxas roll his eyes at his sister. Xion smiled at her brother and shrugged.

"I'm sure it happens to everyone Roxas."

Bless her.

Roxas tutted, but didn't say anything further as he plated up the magnificent breakfast and as they all dug into the food, Lea let the siblings chattering wash over him. Letting his mind drift, he found himself remembering how he had met the two of them, three years ago when they replied to his add for extra people to share the house.

_Lea was frantically typing away on his laptop, surrounded by papers and bits of data. He swore to himself that in the future he would keep the results of his experiments in order and do proper write-ups but right now he was two days away from his deadline and nowhere near finished. _

_As he began to rummage through the loose paper trying to find the right thing, he was aware of someone knocking at his door. He tried to ignore it at first, but that plan went out of the window as the door suddenly burst open and Myde breezed through the open door. He was followed by two rather nervous people, who hovered in the doorway, uncertain of whether they should step into the room or not. _

_Lea barely grunted, as Myde draped himself over the back of his chair, and continued hammering away that the keyboard. Annoyed at getting no reaction, Myde huffed and spun Lea's chair around so he was facing the two newcomers. _

"_Myde what the hell-"_

"_Be nice Lea." Myde swiftly cut across him before he could say anything off-putting or offensive. "These two are here to see you. Something about an advert?"_

_Lea ran his hand through his hair and addressed the older of the two younger students, the one who was looking as if he regretted even looking at the advert._

"_Sorry about this- Lots of work to do, not enough time to do it in. You know how it is, yeah?" Waiting for the kid to nod uncertainly, he continued. "I'm Lea Van Laren." He held out his hand, and the young man stepped forward to shake his hand. _

"_Roxas Hartmann. This is my sister, Xion." Behind Roxas, Xion gave Lea a small wave. Grinning at the pair of them, Lea stood up and stretched his long limbs. "I was due for a break anyway. I'll give you the grand tour then, shall I?"_

And that, as they say, was that. His old housemates had left, and Roxas and Xion had moved in as soon as their lease was up. Lea was pulled out of his reminiscing by a repetitive prodding motion somewhere around the vicinity of his left bicep, and he guessed that Xion had asked him something. Looking at the siblings, he realized that they wanted an answer.

"… Yes?"

Roxas sighed. "You haven't the faintest idea what we're talking about, do you?"

"No."

Roxas rolled his eyes again, and Lea privately thought that Roxas did that far too often. Taking pity on his friend, Roxas repeated the question.

"Xion wanted to know if you were going to be alright on your own while we go back home for the holidays."

Lea laughed, and leaning over the table he ruffled Xion's hair, ignoring the squeal and the mutterings of how long it was going to take to fix the damage he had done.

"Thanks for worrying kiddo, but I'll be fine. Myde's invited me over for Christmas dinner, so I'm not going to be totally alone."

Roxas opened his mouth, no doubt to make a remarkable witty come-back, but he was interrupted by the doorbell. Lea groaned and heaved himself up out of his chair and made his way slowly to the front door. Pulling it open, he found himself face to face with Myde Sommer. The two of them had been friends ever since they were four and Lea had dumped a bucket of sand over Myde's head. Shivering in the chill of the wind that was blowing down the hall, he looked expectantly at his friend.

"Well, either get in or stay outside. All the heats escaping."

Used to such short greetings, Myde happily moved past Lea into the warmth of the house and made a beeline for the kitchen. By the time Lea got back, Myde had an extra plate in front of him and was eating everything that he could reach. Lea smiled as he saw Xion surreptitiously move her plate out of Myde's reach.

"Doesn't that boyfriend of yours ever feed you? You're acting like you haven't seen food in a week. And for Christ's sake- chew your food! Otherwise you're going to choke or something"

Myde swallowed and leaned back patting his stomach. "That was absolutely amazing. My compliments to the chef's!" He turned his bright smile towards Xion, who blushed a colour that rivalled that of Lea's hair.

As she murmured her thanks and fled the kitchen, Lea took a deep drink from his mug of tea, and watched as Roxas inquired for the reason why Myde was in the kitchen eating all their leftovers so early in the morning. As usual, Myde didn't disappoint. Dramatically throwing his arm over his eyes, Myde launched into

"Ienzo kicked me out! He's having one of those boring study meetings with those other people who work in the lab. He says that I'm too 'loud' and they the others can't concentrate." He used his fingers to emphasize the word, and huffed. "I'm not loud. I can't believe he said that."

Behind him, Roxas snorted into his own mug of tea. "Well, it's kind of true Myde."

Myde's expression turned stricken, and Lea could have sworn that even his hair drooped. Sensing that damage control was needed, Lea leaned across the table and patted his friend on the shoulder. "So you're temporarily exiled from the house? That's a pain in the ass."

Myde sniffed and nodded. "Yeah, but I get to come bother you, so it's not all bad. Oh! Speaking about being exiled from houses, that reminds me." Glancing round, he leaned forward conspiratorially and Lea found himself doing the same. "What was all that last night eh?"

Lea was nonplussed. "What are you talking about Myde? It's too early for this cryptic bullshit."

"The new neighbours of yours, that's what! Didn't you hear them last night? All that rumbling and noise, I'm surprised that you didn't hear it."

"I heard it." Roxas moved into one of the empty chairs, and both men turned to look at him. "Sounded like some kind of transformer to me."

"You see!" Myde leaped up and paced up and down the small kitchen. "They're up to something in there- I can feel it."

"Oh for god's sake Myde- you've never met the people. How do you know they're planning something?"

Myde gave Roxas a flat look. "How many times have you spoken to them Roxas?"

Roxas looked taken aback. "Well… I haven't."

"Exactly. Nobody on the street's seen hide or hair of these people- they don't leave the house in the day, they don't go shopping and they don't speak to anyone."

"That doesn't mean anything. Remember the Hoffmans who used to live there? They never spoke to anyone in the road- in fact I can count the number of conversations I had with them on one hand!"

"Fair point, but there's no comparison between the Hoffmans and these people. What's their name… the Eastings? No that's not right…"

"Eason. The family's name is Eason."

The three of them turned in their seats and looked at Xion in surprise. She crossed to the sink and filled a glass with water, seemingly oblivious to the three people watching her. Roxas gaped at his sister, before asking in a strangled voice, "how the hell do you know that Xi?"

She flushed slightly, and went on rather defensively. "One of my friends works in the estate agents. She told me all about them when they first moved in."

Myde looked at if Christmas had just come early. "Did your friend happen to tell you any juicy information about them? Any skeletons in their closet?"

Xion thought about it. "Namine did say that they were all a bit… strange. All close to the same age." As she turned to exit the kitchen again, she paused as if remembering something else.

"Oh yeah! Nami was really vague on the details, but apparently the reason that they had to move is that the last house that they were living in was…" she trailed off as if unsure whether she could continue or not. Myde nodded to her encouragingly, motioning for her to continue.

"What happened to their last house Xion?"

Xion looked nervously to the side, almost like she was afraid that the neighbours would hear her talking about them. "Well, according to Nami it… well, it burned to the ground."

Myde's eyes were wide, and even Lea was a little taken aback. "So… they really are the neighbours from hell then." Roxas whirled to glare at Lea, who wilted a little.

"That's not funny Lea. These poor people have had to move because something traumatic happened to them, and I think it's in bad taste that we're sitting her gossiping and making jokes about them."

Lea held up his hands and made a placating gesture at the blond. "Alright Roxy. We won't gossip about the new neighbours. Alright."

Still frowning, Roxas nodded before almost as an afterthought saying "Don't call me Roxy, you know I hate that nickname."

Myde looked at him disbelievingly. "Seriously Lea? These people might be plotting to blow up the neighbourhood and you'll ignore them because blondie asks you to?

Roxas' eyes narrowed and he growled at Myde. "It's common courtesy! How would you feel if people were talking about you behind your back?"

"But they don't, because I'm not planning on blowing up the street!"

Tuning the two of them out, Lea drained his mug. Pushing his chair away from the table he glanced outside, grimacing at the snow that was piled up outside. Speaking loudly, he spoke over the voices of the bickering pair in front of him. "Right. I'm going to go dig the car out of the snow. Myde, you can come and help." Striding out of the kitchen, he was followed by a complaining Myde.

Glancing round to make sure Roxas was out of earshot, Lea lowered his voice and murmured something that made Myde stop complaining and grin widely.

"I said I'd stop talking about the new neighbours in front of Roxas. I never said anything to him about when he isn't around."


End file.
